Outside of work Matteo spends as much time as possible on mountains (either skiing, climbing or hiking). When that’s not possible he loves reading old (and for most people boring) books (aka classic literature).

Fun fact: “After having been asked by many international friends “Have you ever seen a fox in London?” I can proudly say that I have also been bitten by one.”

We wanted to find out what inspired Matteo to join Vortexa, what some of his biggest milestones have been to date and what day-to-day life really looks like for the Software Engineer…

What inspired you to join Vortexa? 

Everyone I met during the selection process seemed a great person to work with (something confirmed after joining). Also, the tech stack seemed quite interesting.

What would you say is the most interesting aspect of your role? 

I enjoy the variety of problems we work on and also being exposed to the different technologies used to tackle them. Another interesting aspect is in the challenge of delivering new features for customers while at the same time tackling technical debt. Striking a balance between the two is not always easy but very important.

What have been some significant milestone moments for you at Vortexa? 

Working with the rust codebases we developed internally and writing the python binding for one of them has been quite exciting. Also, working on creating an internal service that makes it possible (and safe) for analysts to overwrite the inputs used in statistical models has been quite interesting. Mainly because it gave me the opportunity to touch and understand many of the components of our architecture.

What does day-to-day life look like for you as a Senior Software Engineer?  

I would say most days are spent either writing new features, addressing technical debt, fixing bugs, or discussing with colleagues how we want to tackle a specific problem.

What key qualities make a Senior Software Engineer successful? 

I would say that awareness of the business value generated by what you are working on is quite important. Sometimes it’s tempting to over-engineer a solution or spend too much time on finding the best possible one. So to me, besides the pure technical competence aspect, being a good software engineer means being able to find a solution that is good enough (considering the value it generates), and that also others will find easy enough to maintain and change. 

How would you describe the culture at Vortexa? 

Great! From a cultural perspective it’s probably the healthiest and most balanced company I have worked at so far.

What advice would you give to people hoping to join Vortexa? 

I would say that attitude and potential matter a lot. Obviously technical competency in your area is very important but I would also focus on showing that you are someone who is great to work with.

Describe your working life at Vortexa in three words! 

Definitely not boring.